Additional positions:
Editor, Journal of Military Ethics
Henrik is a Research Professor at PRIO, working on ethical questions related to armed and other societal conflicts. He has also worked on questions related to domestic terrorism, ideology, free speech, and religion. He holds a doctoral degree in philosophy.
Henrik first came to PRIO in 1997 as a Senior Researcher. He has, since then, worked part-time at PRIO, alongside several other tasks and jobs. Henrik was a Journal Editor for the Norwegian political journal Tidens Tegn (1998-2000), and a Member of the Secretariat of the Norwegian Government Commission on Human Values (1998-2001). He was a Post-Doc Scholar at the University of Oslo (2002-05) and had part-time teaching positions at the University of Oslo (2001-03) and at the Norwegian Defence University College (2009-13). He worked as Head of Corporate Governance at Norges Bank Investment Management (2005-07), where he helped start the group within the bank that works on ownership, governance, and ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global. For a full six-year term (2015-20), he was a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, serving as its Vice Chair for the last four years of that term.
Henrik has since 2009 served as Chief Co-Editor of the Journal of Military Ethics (currently with James L. Cook), and he is part-time Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Oslo New University College (formerly Bjørknes University College). His position at PRIO encompasses his work as a journal editor as well as participation in several research projects, currently on the ethics of mediation and the use of artificial intelligence in armed forces. Henrik is also a freelance public speaker.
Before he came to PRIO, Henrik was a Fulbright Fellow at Boston College, USA (1989-91), and a Norwegian Research Council Fellow at the University of Oslo (1992-97). He earned his Bachelor's (Cand.Mag.) Degree from the University of Oslo in 1989, his Master of Arts Degree from Boston College in 1991, and his Ph.D. (Dr.Art.) Degree from the University of Oslo in 1997.
Henrik has lectured and published widely on problems within moral philosophy, political philosophy, business ethics, religion, and the ethics of warfare. He is the author of Natural Law, Religion, and Rights (St. Augustine's Press, 2007), based on his doctoral dissertation, and is the editor of The Ethics of War: Classic and Contemporary Readings (with Gregory Reichberg and Endre Begby, Blackwell, 2006); of Ethics, Nationalism, and Just War (with Gregory Reichberg, Catholic University of America Press, 2007); of Religion, War, and Ethics: A Sourcebook of Textual Traditions (with Gregory Reichberg and Nicole Hartwell, Cambridge University Press, 2014), and of Norge etter 22. juli ("Norway after July 22") (Cappelen Damm, 2018). He has published many academic articles, including in journals such as Ethics and International Affairs, Security Dialogue, Journal of Peace Research, Augustinian Studies, Modern Age, Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics, Corporate Governance, and Journal of Military Ethics. He has also published several books in Norwegian on issues such as faith and reason, free speech, and applied ethics. His most recent monograph, Ord i krise (Cappelen Damm, 2020), deals with the challenges of life in crisis situations, with an emphasis on the Covid pandemic.
Languages spoken:
Norwegian, English, German
Working experience:
Head of Corporate Governance, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), 2005 - 2007.
Post-doc Research Fellow, University of Oslo, 2002 - 2005.
Part-time Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, 2001-2003.
Member of the Secretariat of the Norwegian Government Commission on Human Values 1998-2001.
Chief editor of political journal 'Tidens Tegn' 1998-2000. Senior researcher at PRIO since 1997.
Programme leader for the PRIO research program 'Ethics, Norms, and Identities' 1998-2002.
Education:
Dr.Art. (equiv. to PhD), University of Oslo, 1997;
Master of Arts, Boston College, 1991;
Cand.Mag. (equiv. to B.A.), University of Oslo, 1989. Fulbright scholar 1989-1991.
Doctoral student under the Ethics Program of the Norwegian Research Council 1992-1996.
Book Chapter in Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity: Theory and Applications
Book Chapter in Lives in Peace Research: the Oslo Stories
Book Chapter in Robotics, AI, and Humanity: Science, Ethics, and Policy
Book Chapter in Research Handbook on International Law and Peace
Book Chapter in Business, Peacebuilding and Sustainable Development
Edited Volume
Book Chapter in Norge etter 22. juli: Forhandlinger om verdier, identiteter og et motstandsdyktig samfunn
Journal Article in Ethics and International Affairs
Book Chapter in Norge etter 22. juli: Forhandlinger om verdier, identiteter og et motstandsdyktig samfunn
PRIO Project Summary
For a week in December each year, Oslo city invites the public to learn about and discuss important issues related to peace, democracy and human rights. The series of events are called Oslo Peace Days.
PRIO will contribute to this year's Oslo Peace Days with four events, including the prestigious PRIO Annual Peace Address.
The PRIO project “On Fair Terms: The Ethics of Peace Negotiations and Mediation” (FAIR) organized a workshop in Cyprus in partnership with the PRIO Cyprus Centre, PRIO Middle East Centre, and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security, 19-21 October.
Rojan Tordhol Ezzati defended her PhD successfully on 10 October 2022 at the University of Oslo. The title of her thesis is: Debating diversity, affirming unity: Contestations over we-hood in post-terror Norway.
Congratulations from all at PRIO!
Arendalsuka concluded on Friday and PRIO Director Henrik Urdal sums up PRIO's contributions.
PRIO participated at this year's Arendalsuka with three events, and with our researchers on several debate panels.
The PRIO Research School on Peace and Conflict, in
collaboration with the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, hosted doctoral
candidates at the PhD-level course.
The new open access
book Lives
in Peace Research: The Oslo Stories explains how PRIO, the world's
oldest independent peace research institute, was founded and how it survived
through crises.
PRIO researchers Greg Reichberg and Henrik Syse spoke last week at the United States Naval Academy's annual McCain Conference on military ethics.
The DigiComp project, led by Research Professor Greg Reichberg, has received funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Defense. The project aims to map how digital competence supports Norwegian military readiness. The project will examine what norms (moral and legal) are emerging in this domain, and how a consensus regarding best practices for procurement, development, and use of digital technologies is developing internationally.
On 9-10 September 2021, around 20 researchers met for a hybrid online-offline workshop to share their research on specific cases of ethical issues in peace negotiations and mediation. The workshop was part of the PRIO project 'On Fair Terms: The Ethics of Peace Negotiations and Mediation' (FAIR) and included both PRIO researchers and researchers from across the world.